The Santa Maria City Council achieved what some people may have thought was impossible: After nearly three months of discussion, the council will allow Fallas to set up shop in the old Mervyn’s building downtown.
On Aug. 6, City Council members voted 4 to 1, with Mayor Alice Patino voicing opposition, to grant the discount department store an operating permit. Before the final vote was taken, Patino reiterated the sentiments expressed by some residents during public comment period— that Fallas is a discount store that doesn’t belong in the downtown area.
However, several Fallas employees countered those opinions by waxing poetic about store conditions and what it’s like to work for the company.
“People are standing up here and saying this is a nice place to work and it’s nice and neat and it’s wonderful. This is not what I saw, and I would hope I was wrong,” Patino said. “You want quality neighbors.”
She referenced the reportedly subpar conditions of the Bakersfield Fallas store, which came up during a June 18 council meeting. She said the conditions she found there—an unkempt store with tires scattered around the outside of the building—don’t give her confidence that the company would keep up appearances in Santa Maria.
Patino also said she doesn’t believe the store fits into the Downtown Specific Plan because it won’t be a regional draw.
Store appearances were also a concern for council members Bob Orach and Willie Green at the June 18 meeting. At that time, they joined Patino’s side in the 3-2 vote that sent the project back to city staffers so they could come up with sound legal reasons to deny the project.
At the Aug. 6 meeting, Orach said he believed the additional 15 conditions placed on the project by the Planning Commission and city staff would be enough to keep the store up to snuff.
“Because we have instituted conditions, we have, I think, the ability to make sure that the flagship store stays a flagship store, stays afloat, and churns the water of the Santa Maria store,” Orach said.
He also mentioned that he had visited the newly opened Fallas store in Lompoc and liked what he saw there.
Sandra Menichelli, chief financial officer for National Stores Inc., which owns the Fallas department store chain, said the company has already invested “north of $4 million” in the store and plans to continue making customer service and cleanliness a priority for its stores.
“We’re very excited about the opportunity we have here,” Menichelli said. “We’re putting our money where our mouth is here and we believe we will be successful.”
This article appears in Aug 15-22, 2013.